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Delia Breckinridge
Delia Breckinridge was a Dranian politician of the right-wing Grand National Party (GNP) formerly serving as Prime Minister of Dranland and in many other high positions, including the presidency and the speakership. Life and Politics After a career as a businesswoman and deputy CEO of a weapons factory founded by her father that is one of the biggest suppliers of arms to the Dranish army, she entered politics in 3375 at the age of 25 when she was elected to the Parliament for her hometown Porthladd Rhewi (Magadonia Province). Breckinridge soon became a leading voice of the conservative wing of the GNP by criticizing party leader Tony Bradbury for his more moderate course compared to many of his predecessors. She also called former Lord Chancellor Charlene Goodwill a hero of hers and also stated that she opposed public education. Ironically, she became Minister of Internal Affairs in a GNP-PAC-PP coalition under Prime Minister John Morrison (PP) after Chairman Bradbury had promised to renounce calling for a privatization of the school system. After that coalition was replaced by a Unity/PAC administration following the 3379 elections, Breckinridge was elected GNP Chairwoman as a result of the party base endorsing the traditionalist values championed by her and her faction. Following her election, she vowed to bring back traditional GNP values such as the privatization of the education system. Breckinridge then served as opposition leader between 3381 and 3383, opposing bills submitted by the other parties aiming to increase welfare benefits, regulating gambling and introducing a minimum income. Analysts saw this as a proof for her mission to implement her conservative vision in the GNP platform, though it had opposed said measures throughout all of its history anyway. In the elections of 3383, GNP and PP delivered a blow to the leftist government of Prime Minister Constantine Miller (Unity) by winning a landslide victory and thus obtaining a majority for a new right-wing government with Breckinridge as Prime Minister. Breckinridge's main project during her first tenure, the abolition of pollution standards, failed due to the fierce opposition of PAC and the eventual decision of the PP to vote against the bill. When the Unity party unexpectedly collapsed, the Parliament called for early elections, in which PAC was expected to gain big, with many observers predicting it might overtake the GNP. Nevertheless, the GNP, led by Breckinridge, made gains as well, winning 37% of the popular vote and maintaining a margin of 1% over PAC, enabling the Prime Minister to remain in office. Overall, her government coalition won a crushing majority of 64%. However, the GNP failed to pass many ideologically crucial bills, such as calls for more military capabilities and the abolition of government-enforced hiring policies, which was voted down by PAC and PP. After the unsuccessful 3389 elections, former Magadonia Governor Vivian Trelawney revealed that Breckinridge had promised to her to submit a bill that would allow individual Governors to outlaw abortion after the elections, which caused protest among the overwhelmingly socially progressive GNP parliamentary MPs. The leadership council thus initiated a vote in which Breckinridge was replaced by Janice LeCoultre, who would then preside over the defection of the traditionalist GNP wing to Elaine Duvalle's Conservative National Party. Breckinridge's refusal to vacate her position as Prime Minister as well caused a long period of infighting within the GNP, which reached a new peak when Breckinridge challenged LeCoultre to retake the Chairpersonship in the 3392 leadership elections, however she failed by taking only 30% of the delegates' vote compared to 59% for LeCoultre. Once again, she held onto her premiership. However, her ability to govern was weakened by the constant infighting, leading her to the decision to submit a motion of confidence to determine whether she still had sufficient support among a majority of MPs, however she failed to even obtain a majority among government MPs, forcing her to resign and leave the premiership to Popular Party Leader and Interior Minister Tom Marshall. She then defected to the CNP, where she was assigned the position of parliamentary leader after Elaine Duvalle stood aside in her favor. Leading the CNP into its first ever election, she scored an impressive result of 20% of votes and seats while even winning traditionally left-wing Province Valdor by a stunning 48%. However, the trend reversed four years later when the fascist Valdorian Blue Shirt Movement managed to absorb many social conservatives, causing losses of 11% on the part of the CNP. With Breckinridge's leadership crippled by the electoral defeat, challengers emerged with the intent of gaining her position for themselves. Most notably, Breckinridge was challenged by Duvalle. Foreign Affairs spokesperson Geoffrey Fox also ran, and would unexpectedly prevail. The first few rounds of the leadership election were marked by tactical voting; eventually, Breckinridge pulled out in favour of Fox to prevent Duvalle from winning, resulting in neither Fox or Duvalle winning a majority. The election thus went to the Convention, which elected Fox by a very narrow margin. When CNP and GNP merged as of March 1, 3405, Breckinridge switched back to her old party and promptly received the presidential nomination of the re-united party, however fared poorly with only 14.24% of the vote, thus failing to make it to the runoff. In November 3416, she assumed another high-ranking position for the first time since her departure as Prime Minister, becoming Speaker of Parliament, an office which she would hold onto until 3428, when she received the presidential nomination and ran on a joint GNP, PP and DSP ticket. Eventually, she would win the election against VBSM leader Daniel Aznar by a landslide, winning 70 percent. She would repeat this success four years later when she defeated Green candidate Lucas Kyffyn. Following the consequences of worsening health, she was forced to resign in 3431 and leave the Presidency to Speaker Digby Monmouth (DSP), who took over as acting President. Following her departure, she received lots of praise from across the political spectrum. Breckinridge died seven years later in 3437, at the age of 88. The sad news were announced by her only daughter Julia, who then served as parliamentary leader of the GNP, and her husband William (93) at their home in Porthladd Rhewi (Magadonia). According to the family's statement, she died from a sudden heart failure in the night of February 19. Category:Grand National Party (Dranland) politicians Category:GNP leaders Category:Dranian people